Cars suitable for wheelchairs

What makes a car suitable for a wheelchair?

When you suddenly need to buy or hire a car that is suitable for a wheelchair you may be confused as to what the best option is for you and what actually is the difference between a car and a WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle)

1. The floor is lowered and the ceiling is often raised to give adequate space for a passenger in a wheelchair
2. The boot space is opened up to give access for the wheelchair
3. A ramp is added to allow the wheelchair to be easily boarded.
4. The rear seats are sometimes removed or relocated to give the wheelchair more room
5. In many cases a winch is added to help with boarding of the wheelchair
6. A dedicated seat belt for the wheelchair passenger is added
7. A wheelchair restraint system is added
8. Extra electrics can be added to help the wheelchair user including powered tailgate, power doors, extra lighting and power sockets

Cars which are suitable for wheelchair have been adapted by a dedicated wheelchair conversion company. The conversion company will make a number of changes to the car to make it not only suitable for wheelchairs but also an easy and simple. experience for the wheelchair user.

Each conversion company modifies their vehicles in a slightly different way and you may find you prefer one type of conversation over another, but generally they are all based on the points above.

Most popular vehicle makes are available as wheelchair vehicles including:

• Citroen
• Fiat
• Peugeot
• Renault
• Volkswagen

We often keep the above wheelchair vehicle makes in stock and more. Click below to browse all our disabled vehicles

What makes a van suitable to carry a wheelchair?

Of course it’s not just cars that are used to convert into a wheelchair (or wav) vhecicle, vans of all sizes (but especially larger ones like Renault Master and Vauxhall Vivaro) also offer an excellent solution to wheelchair passenger transportation. Their larger overall frame and ride height make them perfect for conversion into wheelchair accessible vehicles. Quite often vans (and MPV’s) can offer more seating options and even multiple wheelchairs. Rather than a manual ramp vans can often have a powered wheelchair lift.